Pledge
by ri.sparrow.black
Summary: Rue and Katniss are the last Tributes standing. Katniss keeps her promises. The Capitol? Can go hang.
1. Victory

Chapter 1: Victory

Rue and Katniss are the last Tributes standing. Rue's mother POV.

A/N: I watched Hunger Games and Catching Fire this weekend and had major Rue feels. I know several versions of this already exist, but I really needed to do one of my own.

Disclaimer: I do not own Hunger Games.

Her eyes are glued to the screen, to her baby girl. Against all odds, her daughter is still standing, still alive. She has survived for much longer than anyone had ever dreamed, longer than she had dared to hope for. A great deal of that can be laid at the feet of the woman standing in front of her, bow slung over her shoulder. The Girl On Fire. Katniss Everdeen, the girl from District 12 who volunteered to save her little sister. A tribute who defied all the unwritten rules and expectation of the Games and allied herself with a twelve year old girl.

She watches and despairs.

All the other tributes are dead. The boy who loved the Girl On Fire, the sly girl from District 5, even the Careers. And now, the woman who has kept Rue alive, killed in her defense, shielded her, bloodied her own hands and refused to let her gentle-hearted daughter do the same, that woman, is the only person standing between her daughter and victory.

She remembers the footage from District 12's reaping. Primrose Everdeen was the same age as Rue. Slight and blonde, she had looked as if a strong wind would blow her away. But she recalls how that tiny slip of a girl had fought to reach her sister, screaming and thrashing, clawing the air as an older boy had pulled her away. She remembers the despair in that boys eyes, and the love. She remembers the grim determination in Katniss Everdeen's eyes as she stood on that stage, beautiful and fierce.

Katniss and Rue are facing each other. They look pained, torn. The commentators are going crazy and she _hates_ them, hates them all with all the strength of the love she has for her daughter.

Katniss moves first, dropping her bow and quiver as she takes the step to close the distance between her and Rue. She kneels and cups her face.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." She kisses Rue's forehead and stands, drawing her knife. Shock flashes across her baby's face, quickly replaced by acceptance. Not a single tear falls as Rue nods with quiet dignity and a slight smile, tilting her chin up so her neck is bared.

"Nonononono," she is shaking, as she watches her daughter prepare to die, straight-backed and calm.

"It'll be quick?"

She fists her hair and rocks, her heart breaking at the hint of vulnerability in her child's voice.

Katniss closes her eyes and a tear makes it's way down her face. And. How _dare_ she. When she opens her eyes though, they are clear. "I promise. You won't feel a thing." She breathes in, and lets it out on a long exhale. "Close your eyes little songbird." And Rue obeys, unconditionally trusting the woman who is about to take her life.

Then. Then Katniss Everdeen takes two silent steps back and looks up, into the hidden camera with her sharp archer's eyes and _smiles_. It is a dark, bloody thing, grief and triumph and hatred and glee twisting her face, making her look otherworldly beautiful, like a faerie of old. She mouths two words at the camera, shaping them so that they are unmistakable. _Fuck_. _You_.

Then, her knife flashes, quicksilver fast, but. But it is not Rue who falls. Not Rue. Rue is alive. She's alive. Her baby's coming home. Oh. _Oh_.

Rue's eyes snap open at the stifled grunt, just in time to see Katniss hit the ground, and she screams. She _screams_. It is a terrible sound, full of horror and grief, of pain no child should know.

She is on her knees now, unable to stand under the force of her emotions, sorrow and gratitude tangling with relief and guilt as a pale Caesar Flickerman announces with determined cheer that her daughter has won, that Rue is the Victor of the 74th Hunger Games.

She, and all of Panem, know the truth. For 73 years, no matter what the government says, there has only ever been one Victor. But now, with an act of love and sacrifice, Katniss Everdeen has toppled the Capitol from its laurels.

She fists her hands and swears, swears on the blood of her Rue's guardian angel, that she will not forget. Around her, one after another, her District raises their right hands in the three fingered salute of respect and farewell of Katniss Everdeen's people. And she knows she is not alone.


	2. Premonition

Chapter 2: Premonition

Gale knows what's going to happen long before anybody else. Gale POV.

Disclaimer: I do not own Hunger Games.

Gale knows what's going to happen long before anybody else. He knows, he _knows_, the minute he sees Katniss pin her mockingjay to that little girl's collar before the two of them head off in opposite directions to carry out their plan to blow up the Careers' supplies. He _knows_ what that pin means.

_"It's a mockingjay pin. As long as you have it, nothing bad will happen to you."_

Gale has seen Katniss at her cruelest, most vicious and hurtful depths. He knows her better than anybody in this world, better than her mother, better than _Peeta_, even better than Prim. He knows what she's capable of; he knows how strong she is, how brilliant; he can see past her reticence; he knows exactly how _deep_ that contrary streak runs, what an integral part of her it is.

He knows her heart.

His best friend loves with a fierce and savage devotion that can be terrifying in its intensity. She would kill and die for the few people she lets into her heart. And there is nothing and no one in this world Katniss loves more than her sister.

That mockingjay is promise, a promise Katniss made to Prim. She will die before she breaks it, and she will die to keep it. And she _will _have to die to keep that promise.

So, when the rest of the Tributes are dead and Katniss is left standing with the twelve year old girl from District 11, he knows _exactly_ what is going to happen, what Katniss is about to do. He knows, and he can't do anything to stop it.

He can't do anything to _save_ her.


End file.
